My former colleague Howard Meltzer, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 61, was an outstanding social researcher in the field of disability, in particular the design, implementation and analysis of national health surveys. In 1979 he was appointed principal social survey officer at the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS), which later became the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Howard came to my attention when he masterminded the national survey of disability in the late 1980s, carried out by the systematic interviewing of a large random sample of adults living at home, using questions to assess disability and its impact on daily living. At that time I was the principal medical officer at the Department of Health's mental health division and was in the process of planning the first British national psychiatric morbidity survey, which was designed to find out how common different types of mental disorder are in Britain and assess their associated risk factors and consequences. I used Howard's expertise for the sampling design of the survey, beginning a collaboration of more than two decades, working together with leading psychiatric epidemiologists, producing a major series of national surveys.
Thanks to Howard's survey design skills, Britain now has a unique mental health survey programme which no other country has surpassed. The surveys have improved our understanding of the prevalence and risk of different illnesses, and have been used to inform national policy. The standards he set for survey design have had a major international influence.
Howard was born in Manchester, the younger son of a wood-cutting machinist, Morris, and his wife, Bessie. He was educated at North Manchester grammar school and did a BSc in psychology at North East London Polytechnic (now the University of East London), a master's in sociology at London School of Economics and a PhD at Hull University.
Twenty-five years after being made the principal social survey officer at the OPCS, he was promoted to deputy divisional director of the ONS's health and care division. In 2006 he left the civil service and took up a chair as professor of mental health disability in the department of health sciences, at the University of Leicester.
His work was recognised around the world and he advised the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and EC committees on disability issues. He loved cricket, books, word games and the daily Guardian crossword.
He is survived by his wife, Sylvie, whom he married in 1998, two stepdaughters, Sophie and Claire, and his brother, Edwin.